Springdale pulls out of Wicked Weed fest, may host own fest

Thursday

May 4, 2017 at 6:48 PMMay 4, 2017 at 7:00 PM

Norman Miller Daily News Staff @Norman_MillerMW

With numerous of breweries announcing they will not attend Wicked Weed’s Funkatorium Invitational due to the sale of the brewery to Anheuser-Busch/InBev, one local brewery is talking about bringing a festival to Massachusetts.

On Thursday, Sprindgdale by Jack’s Abby of Framingham announced both that they will not attend the Asheville, North Carolina festival in July and are seeking to host one of its own.

“We are in the process of reaching out to the other breweries who’ve had to change their plans for the festival last minute,” Springdale said in a release. “We’d love to host them here in Massachusetts that weekend, so we could share their awesome beer and support each other’s independence.”

Springdale General Manager Joe Connolly said the idea for the festival is in its infancy.

“We’ve been in touch with a few of the other breweries,” said Connolly. “It won’t be at Springdale. It would have to be an off-site festival. There’s really no more information than that.”

Joining Springdale in pulling out of the fest, Night Shift Brewing Company of Everett and Trillium Brewing of Boston and Canton have all pulled out of the Funkatorium Invitational.

Night Shift Co-founder, in an email, said the brewery has pulled out due to the sale. Tenemu.com reported that Trillium was among 21 breweries that confirmed they will no longer attend the festival.

Along with breweries pulling out of the Funkatorium, Wicked Weed will no longer be attending a New England festival.

On Thursday, Beer Advocate announced they have revoked Wicked Weed’s invitation to the first Beer Advocate Beer Meets Wood festival to be held in September in Portland, Maine.